Davide Suriano Wins the WSOP $10,000 Heads-Up Championship

Small stakes player no more! After playing low and mid buy-in events all his life and cashing five-figure prizes, Davide Suriano decided to take a shot at a World Series of Poker bracelet by playing Event #40: the $10,000 Heads-up No Limit Hold’Em Championship. The Italian wasn’t a stranger at all to one-on-one success, winning the WPT Venice Grand Prix Heads-up event in 2012, plus a heads-up side event in last year’s EPT London.

Now Suriano has many reasons to smile because he won a big six-figure prize that will allow him to play the higher stakes in the near future. “This victory is going to change my life,” the winner said after taking down his last opponent in experienced American Sam Stein.

Unknown player no more! Coming into the final round of the $10,000 Heads-up Championship, the Italian was virtually an unknown compared to his foe. Stein had one gold bracelet, 18 WSOP cashes, plus several other big results in the EPT, NAPT and WPT. Suriano had only three WSOP cashes and a number of small prizes won in Europe along with a bankroll built in the online world.

Now the unknown can brag after winning his first gold bracelet and Italy’s seventh overall. Moreover, his six-figure cash will add up nicely to Italy’s total earnings in WSOP history of over $15 million.

“This is the biggest thing that has ever happened to me,” Suriano told WSOP.com.

The Italian won the first two hands of the final round and took the chip lead early. He also made a flush on hand #8 and with the blinds increasing, he picked up his aggression even more by winning a lot of non-showdown pots. After just 36 hands, Stein decided to fight back with his last 20 big blinds and shoved over the top of Suriano’s raise with #kd#7d. His opponent made the call with #as#10d and Stein had to improve in order to stay alive.

That didn’t happen as the board showed #3d#10s#jh#ac#5s, giving Suriano two pair and the most coveted piece of jewelry in poker.

Here are the final four payouts:

Davide Suriano – $335,553

Sam Stein – $207,347

Daniel Colman – $111,942

Scott Davies -$111,942

Congratulations to Davide Suriano on his impressive shootout win. If he sustains his level of play, we will definitely hear a lot more about him in the next major events. Can he take his bankroll to the next level?